The Life Box is an Easy-to-Distribute Refuge for Catastrophe Survivors

International disaster relief is an area that's starved for resources and innovation, but ideas like the Life Box shelter are rare and promising suggestions that make prompt responses to large-scale accidents a real possibility. Appropriately, this concept won a 2013 Red Dot Design Award as an invention that's economical, relatively easy to dispatch and offers essential-to-life amenities.

Adem Önalan proposes a rectangular box that can fit with eight others on a standard pallet for compact transport. It can also be airdropped on land or in water. The parachute-integrated Life Box unfolds into an inflatable refuge that can be linked up with others to form larger and more stable temporary structures. It comes with provisions like food, water and medical supplies stored inside, to tide over survivors until rescue.